Life After Death/Issue 31
Ike stood in the middle of the road, staring up into the night sky. He was no longer wearing his armor, and instead donned a light blue coat with a tan shirt underneath. His hair had grown out quite a bit, and he had started to grow a beard. Rachel, who was wearing a navy blue jacket and green shirt along with her fedora, walked up behind him and wrapped her hands around his waist. "How are you doing?" Rachel asked as she put her head on his back. "I'm fine," Ike replied. "Just...tired." "How's Owen been? I haven't talked to him lately." "He's...well, he's still alive. That's all that really matters." "You should let him out of the station more often, let him get some fresh air." "I can't...not after last time..." "It's been almost two months, Ike. Two months of him being cooped up in that gas station. He needs to be able to live his life." "I don't want to risk it..." "You think he's broken now? You keep him isolated like this, he's going to shut down. It's already almost impossible to talk to him." Ike stared at the ground. "Fine, I'll consider it." "Have you talked to Bart at all lately?" "Yeah...he's still pissed off, but I think he's starting to move on. I've been trying to help him through everything, but he doesn't want the help. I don't know if it's because of what I did or if he's just being stubborn." "He's probably just being stubborn, you know how he is. He already told you that he doesn't hate you." "I know...but I think he was lying." "You know Bart isn't like that. If he has something to say, he'll say it." "I don't know...I guess I'll have to talk to him about it tomorrow. Right now, we should get some sleep. Come on." Rachel let go of Ike, and the two walked into the station. They had cleared out the center of the building and had a fire going, which had been surrounded with large rocks to keep the fire contained. Devon and Emily sat by the fire with their arms around each other while everyone else prepared their beds. "You ready to go to bed yet?" Emily asked him. Devon took a while to respond, as he stared deeply into the flames. "Uh, yeah, sure," he finally replied. "Is something wrong?" "No, nothing's wrong. I was just zoned out. Come on, let's get some sleep." The two went to the corner of the room and started to unroll their sleeping bags. Meanwhile, Ike approached Owen, who was lying in his sleeping bag behind the front counter. "Hey, how you doing?" Ike asked as he sat beside Owen. "I can't sleep," Owen replied as he sat up and leaned against the wall. "What's wrong?" "I keep thinking about what happened. When those people showed up and started shooting...I was scared." "We were all scared." "What if it happens again?" "It won't. Those bad people won't bother us again." "Because you killed them." "Uh, well...yes. Yes, we killed them, but we had to, they were dangerous." "I wish I could have shot one." Ike stopped talking and stared at his son. Owen had always been kind, and to hear him wishing that he had killed someone was appalling. He put his hands on Owen's shoulders, and stared him straight in the eyes. "Don't you ever, ever say something like that again. Killing someone is terrible, and I never want you to have to do that, got it?" "Okay...sorry." Ike let go of Owen, and stood up. "Alright...I'm going to go to sleep. Goodnight, Owen." "Goodnight." ---- Devon stood in the middle of a large room. There was a couch, some tables, and a tv. It looked exactly like the living room in Devon's old house, only everything was gigantic. Devon looked to his left, and saw a large man standing in the corner of the room, with his back toward Devon. "Dad!" Devon yelled as he started to run toward what seemed to be his father. However, no matter how much he ran, he was never able to get any closer. Suddenly, the man slowly turned around, keeping his head hanging down. Once he was facing Devon, he lifted his head up, and stared straight at him. It was his father's face, only it was zombified. All of a sudden, Bryce growled loudly and lunged at his son. Devon's eyes burst open as they were met with darkness. He sat up slightly as a blanket fell off his chest, and looked around. He was in the gas station. He sighed, and looked to his right, where Emily was fast asleep beside him. Devon layed back and pulled the blanket over himself. "It was just a dream," he whispered to himself in the darkness as he fell back asleep. ---- The next day, Eric stood outside of the station, smoking a cigarette. Brie noticed him standing there, and walked over to him. "You shouldn't be smoking those," Brie said with a smile. "It'll attract the rotters." "You're right," Eric replied. "Not that those are even a problem anymore; haven't seen one of the things in weeks." "I know, it's like they all just disappeared." "It's surprising...after everything that happened back at the camp, I figured they'd follow us here after a while." "So, I heard that you're going on the run today." "Yeah." "I thought you didn't like going on them?" "I don't." "Then why go?" "Because...I don't feel like I do enough around here. I thought that going on a run is the least I could do to help out." "You do do enough." "I appreciate you saying that, but it doesn't change how I feel about it. Besides, with Ryan's sprained ankle, the others could use my help. I don't see anyone else volunteering." "Well, I just hope-" "AH!" Brie was cut off by a scream coming from around the gas station. Her and Eric ran around the side and saw Bart holding his arm out against a rotter. Eric reached for his pistol, but Bart held his other hand out. "Don't," he said with a grunt. "Too much noise." Bart then pushed the rotter away, and at the same time, grabbed his own pistol. He flipped it around and held the barrel, and then slammed the end of it into the rotters head. He did this several more times, knocking it to the ground. He continued to beat it's head in until it stopped moving and making noise. He then wiped the gun on the grass, stood up, and placed it back into it's holster. "First one of them I've seen in a while," Bart said, somewhat surprised. "At this point, they're probably not roaming around by themselves," Andre said as he walked up beside Eric and Brie. "What do you mean?" "Well, it's been half a year...and we already know that they like to group together in hordes. I don't think it's too farfetched to think that, by now, they're probably all traveling in groups." "That...makes sense, I guess." "We should watch ourselves...there could be more on their way." ---- Inside, Devon was sitting on his sleeping bag, staring blankly at the ground. Emily noticed his odd behavior, and walked up to him. "Are you okay?" she asked. "I'm fine," Devon replied, still staring at the ground. "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Because you were doing the same thing last night." "Well, I'm fine." "Alright. Well, I think everyone's getting ready to go on the run, soon. You should get ready, too." "I will." Emily hesitantly walked away, leaving Devon with his thoughts. ---- Ike walked across the road to the other side, where Dolph, Eric, and Morgan were. They were standing by an SUV, holding a map. "Perfect, you're just in time," Dolph said to Ike. "We think we've found a shorter path to the store." "Really?" Ike asked. "Yeah," Morgan said as she showed him the map. "If we backtrack down the road a bit, there's a dirt road that will take us straight to the road that connects to the store." "Huh, would you look at that. How'd we never see this before?" "No idea." "Are we ready to go?" Devon asked as he walked up to the four. "Now we are," Dolph said. "Come on, let's go." Credits * * * * * * * (Dream) * * * * * Deaths *None Trivia *As of this issue, Life After Death's main cast is now an ensemble cast, meaning Devon Brandt is no longer the protagonist of the series.